Sam knocked on the open door of Doctor Weir's office. Weir was talking via video comm link to Woolsey, but she gestured for her to come in.
The Colonel took a seat and waited patiently for her to finish, wondering why she had been called here.
Eventually, Weir bade Woolsey farewell and pressed a button, the communication channel closing. She turned to Carter and remarked with a raised eyebrow,
"The IOA still thinks they own me!"
Sam smiled politely before asking, "What's this about?"
Weir lowered her gaze to her desk briefly before replying quietly, "I think you should see this for yourself, Colonel."
She gestured towards the open door, and Sam looked behind her to see not one, but two Doctor McKays in the doorway. Weir smiled as Sam stood up and eventually remarked,
"One of you is bad enough but two?!"
Our McKay remarked with a smug smile, "Knew you wouldn't be able to resist the McKay charm for too long, blue eyes."
Sam looked from one to the other, noticing the alternate version's different appearance.
AU McKay looked at his counterpart weirdly, before smiling at Sam and exclaiming as he offered his hand,
"Colonel Jackson! How're you doing?"
Behind her, Weir blinked as if to say 'Excuse me', as McKay looked at him strangely, and Sam practically gawped. When she eventually regained the power of speech, she stammered,
"Ex-excuse me!? Colonel Jackson!?"
AU McKay glanced at our McKay and then back at Sam, asking as he put his hand down, "She's, you're not married to Professor Jackson?"
She blinked in disbelief before shaking her head and saying, "Um, no."
He ducked his head in embarrassment and apologised, "I'm so sorry, Colonel Carter!"
Our McKay remarked, "She's way too into me to..."
At that moment, Jeannie appeared and slapped her brother on the arm, exclaiming, "Meredith, get over it - Colonel Carter would never go anywhere near you, on purpose!"
She said to Sam with a smile, "Sorry about Mer; well, I suppose you know what's he like! By the way, nice Rod came across the bridge to warn us about Project Arcturus, so we've shut it down."
Sam slowly nodded, still in shock, before walking past the McKays, to lean over the balcony to think.
As she watched the gate room, AU McKay came up to her and said,
"I'm so sorry, Sam. I didn't mean to offend you or anything. My Sam - the Sam in my Universe is married to Professor Jackson, and they have three children..."
He continued with a grin, "To which I am godfather! Little Melburn absolutely loves the little Marlon Brando impression I do anytime anyone mentions the word 'godfather'..."
He continued, doing a passable Godfather impression, "I'll make you an offer you can't refuse!"
Sam glanced at him, before they both chuckled, and she stared out at the gate room again, deep in thought. Something occurred to him, and he dug his hand into his jacket pocket, and asked,
"Do you want to see the children that you haven't had?"
She glanced at him curiously as he produced a small pile of photos, which she tentatively took from him. She turned her back to the gate room as he guided her through the photos,
"That's Melburn... that's Claire... and that's Jacob. Y'know, in my Universe, you're expecting another one, and there's a lot of jokes about you and Daniel being rabbits."
She stared at the pictures, and murmured, "Oh my," on seeing one of her and Daniel with their arms around each other, Daniel kissing her as she giggled, and Christmas decorations festooned around the room. Behind them were Mitchell and Teal'c, grinning, about to drop tinsel on them.
He looked at it before saying with a grin, "Oh that one -- that's my favourite - that's at last year's Christmas party at General Landry's cabin."
She took a deep breath and murmured, "Am I happy?"
He replied with a grin, "Oh boy, and then some! You nearly made a huge mistake by going off with General O'Neill, but you realised before it was too late that he wasn't right for you, and he kept shutting you out. I'm telling you, the day you realised that Daniel was the one for you... Teal'c still has the photos of people gaping at you two kissing."
She looked up at him, smiling, new hypotheses forming in her head. Not only was she happy that somewhere McKay was a really nice guy, but also that in that same place, her other self was happy and had sorted out her life.